Pre-Paid Phones

I need advice/help/guidance, have phone service only with my local cable company, which works just fine, no problems with their system.  We have had a frank exchange of views regarding their overall attitude towards the paying permies.  To shorten this tale, being the mild and kind soul that I am, I made a rather rude suggestion as to what they could do with their service.

So I am about to be without phone service anytime now, which I don't really care about.  I do have several true family (friends) that call to check on me, so I need a replacement phone service.  Any suggestions for these talk/text only, Pre-Paid cell phones?  One other thing I dropped my two credit cards a few months ago, so I now pay with cash or by check.

Peace  

Giffgaff's the most flexible, reliable, and best value over in Europe/the UK, but I don't know whether it exists where you are.  You'd have to access your account online, would be the only thing.

Hello!

Alternative phone schemes are great! I'm a flip phone user and I've tried all kinds of schemes.

Here's my current one: I have a flip phone that is one my mother in law's family plan. When I see her, I throw some cash her way for the mo nthly bill, but she typically refuses because we're family. This costs ~$30 a month, but I cannot manage my own phone problems without her help and it can be frustrating.

Before this: I jumped from prepaid plan to prepaid plan, and it typically cost me about $65 a month. I really liked ATT because the coverage was good, but I'm on Verizon now and the coverage is still pretty good. That's very dependent on where you are though. When I was using my phone very little, or if I could only afford a little bit, I used Tracfone. You only pay for what you use.

Every time I was looking to switch I would visit Walmart and go to their tech section and look at their prepaid phones and plans. They have the best selection of prepaid service plans all in one spot for comparing. Picked up a switch kit (comes with a sim card, and often a month of service) and paid however I'd like at the counter. Some plans allow you to prepay up to a year in advance! Lots of options, and when you need more time, you can pick up the cards in all sorts of places like the drug store, many department stores, dollar stores, and we have one local place who sells them.

Good luck! Finding a new scheme is tough, but doable

We use Tello https://tello.com/buy/custom_plans

It was recommended by someone here in a thread I began awhile ago.  
https://permies.com/t/159518/luddite-version-pay-contract-talk

Not prepaid but so affordable...we use a debit card.
$10.23 total a month for unlimited talk and text and 2GB data.

They have many plans available for more data.

Just be sure there is a good phone signal where you are.  
Our data is always available but phone signal iffy unless sitting out on the porch and then it's good for long conversations.  We are in a low spot by a creek and no one gets a good signal here no matter the provider.

Thanks everyone for all the great information.

Jojo, I will check on your suggested provider but if they are that good and that reasonably priced, I doubt the Big Boys here in the US would allow them to operate here.

Carmen, sounds as if the pay for the minutes that you use may be the plan for me.  I have a dislike for phones and seldom call anyone.

Judith, I will check with your provider.  I do have a Debit card, but only use it at my nearby ATM for cash.


Peace  

We have two cell phones.

My phones is on our daughters AT & T Cell phone plan.

The other phone is an AT & T prepaid phone.

I got it for emergencies when one of us is not at home.

As long as I pay before the expiration date I get to keep all my remaining minutes.  At one point I had a balance of over 300 minutes.

There are a lot of reliable prepaid for services such as AT & T, Sprint, etc.

It is best to go with something that folks in your area know is reliable rather than some schemes.

Carmen also brought up a good point about Walmart.  We use Best Buy because of their Geek Squad technical service.

Paying with cash or check makes the Walmart or Best Buy prepaid phones more assailable.

As mentioned.
You need to see what reception at your place is like.
I tried consumer cellular and was out running around the yard looking for a signal.
Using walmart straight talk now with no reception problems in the same place.

Craig, I'm going to say that the cell reception here in this older (60's - 70's built) suburban development is fair to good.  Also I'm very likely the only person without a cell phone.

I really only want/need a phone with voice/talk, I don't know if anyone offers that simple a service these days.  The phone would only be for use here at home, much like the current landline.

I don't drive due to all the heart attacks I've had, while I will say that there a few folks that I would be glad to take along with me to the Summerlands should I die while driving, I don't want to chance taking any of the general public with me.  Having to make a trip out to a retail shop to buy a card to load more time on a phone might be too much for me, as I dislike asking my friends for rides.  I'll have to do some more research in the coming days to come up with a plan.

My thanks for all the help guys!

Peace

You know what I honestly like still having a land line.  Yes it only works in the house but that is where I will be if you call me.  I do have a portable version that can still pick up the signal if near the house outside so I can garden and listen for it.   It also came with a built in answering machine and allows me to prescreen the calls.  AND I can program in the numbers I am most likely to call so it is a simple push button call.  

On the other hand "my leash" is with Verizon and has been since they started becoming popular as my husband wanted to make sure I could call for help if need be on any of my longer trips...  Current incarnation is an Apple iPhone that is a few years old.  It frequently sits in my purse totally dead as I forget to charge it...  my family know to try the land line first.

A problem I had with Trac Phone was you needed to have a sim card sent to you in the mail they didn't come with one for our area? which I always thought was odd.  So if you get one do check that.  On the other hand they were great for my son who could turn it off when he deployed and we would turn it on a day or two before he got home.  On one drive from the airport he called us to say he was in country and got mobbed as his was the only functioning phone of the bus.   He and we both found keeping track of minutes was a pain but the plans have improved a lot since then.

When I traveled to the US regularly, I used to always buy a new chip and a prepaid plan for while I was there (usually a month. New phone technology means i no longer have to buy a physical chip, i can use Phone Magic to sort it out now, but the system still works).
Walmart/Target are good places, but I've also bought the chips in pharmacies (pretty much all the chain pharmacies have them). They often keep them behind or near the counter. you have to buy the chip, and then a card to put money on the chip. When I've done it at Walmart or Target I've had people help me set it up, but I also have done it on my own when I buy them at the pharmacy. When setting up the chip, you choose the phone number for your region and buy a plan with minutes. It's usually really straightforward, there is an instruction sheet that comes with the chip you put in your phone.
I've used a whole bunch of them over the years, i only remember Straight Talk, Tracfone (one time I was there for 6 months with multiple lines), and the only one I would not recommend, which was Orange (not sure if they're still around, i was in an airport and that was my only option. it was years ago).

As for which one to choose: they all use the 3 carriers that are common in the US, it might be worth asking around to see if there are any that don't work. There are maps you can check but their accuracy is debatable.

And if you don't have a phone, you can often find "simple" phones for sale near these chips/cards where they're sold (often they're marketed as being for older people, but they're just not digital wonders and usually work pretty well). I've bought used and unblocked ones online for next to nothing, but I'm thinking about options where you don't need a credit card.

Do the three providers all work good in your area (T-Mobile, Verizon, At&T), if not let me know hich one you want to focus on.

t-mobile network = Mint Mobile ($180 for 365 days)`
verizon network = Visible ($275 for 365 days)
at&t network = good2gomobile ($120 for 365 days)

Hi Deane,
I'm no expert. I am not a fan of phones. You could buy a prepaid phone with cash. I would say you could even buy a prepaid card to reload minutes onto that phone with cash. But I am not sure if you would be forced to manage the account online with a valid email address. A good person to ask would be the Walmart worker who works back in electronics.  Options for prepaid phones would be TracFone, Crickett, etc. Just figure out which towers work best at your house, and then ask the guy at Walmart which tower TracFone/Crickett/etc uses. I think they all use either an AT&T tower or a Verizon tower.
Good luck. I just checked with my carrier, PureTalk. They do not allow me to pay by entering my checking account info. They only let me pay with a credit card, so my carrier is not a good fit for you.  I see that US Cellular, which is not a prepaid service, allows you to enter a bank routing number and account number to make payments from.

Here EU/NL you can buy minutes for calling / text that is valid for a year and longer if you add some before the year runs out. Also keeps the number yours on the chip you bought to start with. Buy your own phone to use it. Done this for 20+ years by now, but most years i use up about 15 euro's a year.

Quotes i see above here aboout US plans sound expensive to me. Also pick a phone that handles a touch more then just call and text and get whatsapp for free text + photo's and such, helps with questions to say friend, vet or doctor if you can add picture (and taking pictures has its uses for other things as well). Some tech stuff is getting usefull these days, but i agree with staying on the simple side of it. My phone could do way more then i allow it internet and such wise, i don't like the miniscreen for it or the vulnarability and having everything everywhere. Rather have tasks like paying and internet on a bigger screen and just one device.